I’m VERY excited to share the news that TileMosaicGirl will be moving into its very own space (small but mighty!) by the end of this month (March, 2012)! The new space will house classes, the Mosaic Supply Shop, and Open Studio Time! We will be able to offer a wider range of days and times for classes, the Shop, and Open Studio, which will also enable us to host Visiting Instructor mosaic artists!  The new location is only about 2 miles North on Colorado Blvd., just off Colorado on Kentucky at Birch.  It has Home Depot/Whole Foods to the North and the Glendale Infinity Park to the East.  The shop is located in a wonderful multi-use building called “The Workshops”, and I will be on the 2nd floor, which is the “Arts & Crafts floor”.  The new address (click for map and photo link) is:

4340 East Kentucky Ave, Ste. 244

Glendale, Colorado

80246-2065

It is located in a great little revitalized neighborhood, but when they built the building in 1997, they installed Intercoms for entrance to the elevator, so you will need to buzz the unit # to be let in.  There is plenty of free, lighted parking, wonderful fellow tenants, and many other amenities.  More details and photos to come soon!

Happy New Year! I’m a little late in getting this info. out, so please accept my apologies! Following are the Supply Shop and Open Studio Hours for January:

Sun. 1/15-5-9 pm

Mon. 1/16, 1-5 pm     (MLK Day! 15% off in the Supply Shop!)

Mon. 1/23, 4-8 pm

Thur. 1/26, 4-8 pm

Sun. 1/29, 5-9 pm

Also; please be on the lookout for upcoming posts and registration links regarding the next Tempered Glass & Jewelry Classes in February and the next Outdoor/Garden Mosaics and Beginner’s Mosaics Classes in March.  I will be attending the Society of American Mosaic Artists’ (SAMA) Conference in February, and will be bringing back lots of good information, techniques, and updates from the world of mosaics!  While there, I will also be meeting with several other mosaic artists about coming to Denver as “Visiting Instructors” to teach us their special skills and techniques in a variety of mosaic methods!  This year will be another year of growth for TileMosaicGirl, with more instructors and more classes! Be on the lookout, GO BRONCOS, and See you Soon!

Come check out a great local market here in the Denver area; Sweet William Market at Stapleton; you’ll find it at the end of the roundabout in the “29th Ave.” business district of Stapleton, just off Quebec at 29th Ave.  It’s only open from 9-2, so come early before the cupcake truck runs out, the live music stops playing, and all the ‘good stuff’ is gone!  I’ll be there with all kinds of new mosaic finery; jewelry, pet tags, garden stakes, frames, trays, tables, wall art, etc., etc.!  Come on out and meet me if you haven’t already and let’s ‘talk some mosaics’! Class registrations and information also available at the market; come ask me your questions and see which class is right for you!

First craft show of the season, and this month I’m at Stapleton’s Sweet William Market, a great little mix of crafts, antiques, food, music, and general merriment! Sweet William has a wonderful ‘feel’ to it; on the grass at ‘The Green’ at Stapleton, on the other side of the traffic circle from where the 2-block span of businesses for the 29th Avenue Town Center ends. (The Green is bordered by 29th Ave. & 29th Place and Roslyn and Syracuse Streets).  There is plenty of free parking in the lots behind the Town Center businesses.  You can find the Town Center at Quebec St. and 29th Avenue, just South of Montview.  The Market is Saturday, June 25th from 9 am – 2 pm only; so be sure and don’t miss that little window of time!

I will have mostly NEW items including whole new, never before seen collections of Mosaic Dog and Cat Tags for your sweet babies and recycled and upcycled Garden Stakes to further beautify your space.  I’ll also have lots of new mosaic jewelry, frames, mirrors, furniture, garden items, and I can’t even think of what else! If you’ve never seen my Easy Rider gallery piece, it’ll be making a special appearance as well.  I’m happy to announce, too, that fellow mosaic artist and teacher Cristin Buys will also be displaying some of her amazing work in the TMG booth!  We’ll be at booth #S12, on the SE corner of the park.  Come on out and see us and take a gander around at all the cool stuff!

I apologize for this being kind of late in the game, but, wanted to make sure you knew about a terrific event this weekend in Littleton.  The 39th Annual Friends of the Museum and Library Craft Fair will be held at Ketring Park, Saturday only, from 9 am to 4 pm.  There will be 300 fine arts and crafts vendors for what is said to be a terrific annual show!  I will have all kinds of new mosaic items (awesome new jewerly styles, Day of the Dead/Mexican decor and furniture items, a few garden type items, several beautiful mosaic tables, etc.) on display (and for sale) at my booth, which is just to the North of the Museum parking lot, on the outer edge of the booths.

There is no entry fee for the fair and Ketring Park and the Littleton History Museum are in a great setting, complete with horses, chickens, and a lake.  Watch for the blue “Littleton History Museum” signs on Littleton Blvd. and turn South on Gallup St.
 
(Ketring Park is up the hill/East of Old Town Littleton, West of Broadway, S. of Littleton Blvd. )   See map here: http://maps.google.com/maps/place?cid=15065483781473119321&q=Littleton+Historical+Museum,+Littleton,+CO&hl=en&cd=1&ei=Rw2lTO2hL5ncjAP5tuxQ&sig2=0xq3jNpAk3uXAHbIdl3sTA&dtab=0&sll=39.692464,-105.077106&sspn=0.205288,0.354318&ie=UTF8&ll=39.870223,-105.385666&spn=0,0&z=11&iwloc=A
 
I’d love for you  to come out and see me and all the other wonderful vendors…it’s only 2 1/2 months till the holidays; get some shopping out of the way now!

New Fair Display Walls!!

OMG! I am SO excited! I found some great stuff today on my latest trip to the Habitat for Humanity Resale Store in Denver.  (They have stores located across the U.S. and Canada, all of which benefit Habitat for Humanity’s excellent program.)  I often find great grout, caulk, and tiles at the Resale Store, much of it donated from home improvement stores when the manufacturer decides the new season calls for a new shade of ‘white’.  This time, I was looking for something to use as a fixture in my upcoming summer fair booth that I could hang my mosaics on; like a vertical wall that’s freestanding.

Well, hallelujah, I’m here to tell ya, I found the PERFECT thing for it and I am SO excited! It’s a brand new set of bi-fold doors; 2 sets of 2 doors adjoined by hinges, that can stand upright very well, but I’ll hit Depot for some kind of L-brackets to mount on the bottoms so they have some support on the floor for the weight of the mosaics.  These ones are perfect because they’re brand new, unfinished, completely flat surfaced, and 6 feet, 8 inches tall!!!  And, for a zippy lil price of $45 for all 4 doors, they more than fit into my fair ‘budget’.  I thought I would share this ‘find’ of both the display option and the Habitat stores, if you weren’t already aware.

Closer-up of new display walls

I also scored an awesome wooden display cube that I can use as a riser or a double shelf for displaying tabletop items.  This one’s great because the depth on it is at least 12″, which is much larger than most riser-type fixtures.  And, at $5.00, ya can’t beat that!One more thing I found myself not being able to leave at the store was the most awesome, super-duper, cool, yummy-rific, bright baby blue, ceramic, completely in great shape, TOILET!  Yes; you heard it here; I AM going to mosaic a toilet and put it in my backyard!  The tank’s going to become a planter and the bowl will either be a birdbath or have a fountain in it!  It was only $35!  I canNOT wait to be able to start gluin’ on that baby after the fair and get it in the yard for summer!!!

'Fish Bowl' by Jean Wells

Barbie Pink Toilet

Garden-y Mosaic Toilet

Fun Sunny Mosaic Toilet!